Children in yr10 onwards - which school hol do you go away in?

Spendless

peachyprice wrote: »

We still always went in the summer holidays. The holidays we went on weren't really affected by being too busy or expensive.

It meant that they always had a good treat at the end of the months of pressure and most importantly for me it meant we weren't packing a holiday into a one week window that meant rushing to pack the Friday they broke up and rushing back to school/work as soon as we got back.

Where did you go out of interest?

I've never felt the way you do about going away in half term. I much prefer to pack bags and cases and tidy the house whilst the kids are out of the way at school all day. Work has never been as issue, as I used to have a job where I didn't work on Fridays and now have an ad-hoc one, so can give no availability days. Though anyone who works 5 days a week, would then end up with an additional day to find childcare for during the school, year as they'd have had a day out of sync with kids hols, it doesn't use any more annual leave days than a week in July or most of Aug due to a day being a BH that week. We'd then travel on Fri night or Saturday so return the following Sat,and have Sunday to catch up with washing. Though mine have never had an inset day tagged on to May half term, they have October half term which has given an extra day to play with on the occasional times we've gone away then.

Spendless

arbrighton wrote: »

Nope- all exams for triple science are taken in Y11 now (i.e. terminal rather than modular thanks to Gove). Most of the Y11 triple science group I work with as a TA had no exams until their language oral this year and then nothing until on or after 12 may. Majority are finished by 13th June but will be expected to come into school for one or two days to do 6th form induction and leaver's assembly. A number of the year group sat foundation GCSE maths last year. THose who got c go onto higher, those who don't resit.

Easter break is probably a good time as even with a week away, there is still time to study.

As for when mocks are, it varies by school- with us this year, it was straight after Christmas

Oh interesting. Is this a recent change? Back in early 2013 we were all told that if any of our children were selected to take triple science the coursework would start in yr 9 and then the first of the exams would take place at the end of yr 10 and would count towards the final exams that would be taken at the end of yr 11. Has this changed for all schools?

Spendless

Bennifred wrote: »

One thing to look out for after the exams finish for Year 11, is if they are going onto sixth form they are sometimes expected to attend school for the last couple of weeks of the school year in preparation for that.

Hmmm. the school he is at doesn't have a sixth form, so all children have to change to a different school or college. Though I've no idea where son will choose, he has occasionally expressed a preference for a 6th form college where he's done a summer school before. It's in a neighboring county and the term dates are our of sync with where we live, so ultimately I could be looking at 2 years of having kids with different term time dates for most hols.

Spendless

FBaby wrote: »

Hi Spendless, your post has left me a bit anxious...as I've already booked to take the kids away next May holiday and will even take them out of school the day before and after I assumed that DD would do all her GCSEs the following year. The school made a point during a presentation that the new education system didn't encourage taking early GCSEs.

I assumed that even if they did, it wouldn't be the day before/after holiday anyway. I didn't think about revising, but I suppose that could be done whilst on hols. I remember spending the whole week away on a skiing family holiday revising in the pub every day for my A levels!

This holiday was an incredible opportunity that the kids really wanted to do (and cancelled this year's holiday as a result) and so booked very quickly.

Your kids are in the same years as mine. For my eldest it is only due to him taking triple science and us having been told he will start to sit exams early that makes me query about going. We haven't been told that this has changed from what we were initially told.

Son needs [STRIKE]a thumbscrew[/STRIKE] loads of encouragement to get him to knuckle down to revision, so I don't think studying whilst away will be an option.

laurel7172

This year's Year 11 (including DS) are the lucky, lucky young people who had their expected exam timetable hacked into bits by one of Gove's ill-thought-out reforms when they were already well into Year 10.

In theory, there probably will be fewer exams in Year 10 from now on-DS had to spend a good chunk of Easter last year in school, doing work originally scheduled for Year 11 in order to somehow mitigate the mess created (by Gove, did I mention that?:rotfl:).

You see, I was at school when they were planning the change from O Level to GCSE, and I know that it took years, and that experimental exams were taken, and some were failures, and were learned from.

Michael Bl**dy Gove, however, simply sends down diktats from his ivory tower without consultation, testing or any real evidence of thought, and it's our children who have to deal with the fallout. :mad:

Ask the school? The school has *no idea* what the situation will be in twelve months' time. He could have changed the exam structure again by then. Altered a dozen syllabuses...decided Physics will be tested in Mandarin for all anyone can tell. But whatever he does, you can guarantee the first the staff will hear about it will be from the newspapers.

So, given what I could most charitably call the pace of change, I wouldn't risk taking a young person away in May in Year 10.

peachyprice

Spendless wrote: »

Where did you go out of interest?

I've never felt the way you do about going away in half term. I much prefer to pack bags and cases and tidy the house whilst the kids are out of the way at school all day. Work has never been as issue, as I used to have a job where I didn't work on Fridays and now have an ad-hoc one, so can give no availability days. Though anyone who works 5 days a week, would then end up with an additional day to find childcare for during the school, year as they'd have had a day out of sync with kids hols, it doesn't use any more annual leave days than a week in July or most of Aug due to a day being a BH that week. We'd then travel on Fri night or Saturday so return the following Sat,and have Sunday to catch up with washing. Though mine have never had an inset day tagged on to May half term, they have October half term which has given an extra day to play with on the occasional times we've gone away then.

We've been to all sorts of places. Admittedly not tourist traps!

We've stayed on a stud farm in Normandy, a gite near bordeaux, a ski chalet in Switzerland (cheaper in summer than winter!), Lake Como, Dubai a couple of times when summer was dirt cheap (before they twigged onto UK school hols) The Rhone valley in Germany.

I do my homework, stick to flights on a weekday, choose accommodation away from tourist areas and refuse to book anywhere that hikes is price by more than a couple of hundred € in school hols.

This year we're going back to Lake Como for 10 days for £395 each.

balletshoes

I'm with Peachy regarding summer holidays, I don't do packages as they rarely come under my budget range. I source my own flights, including going from Scotland if thats a lot cheaper in English school holidays (because they have different holidays ) then source my own accommodation and transfers.